The Short List for U.S. Chief Technology Officer — Barack Obama has pledged to name a cabinet-level CTO to oversee a job-creating national broadband buildout if he's elected. Big names abound — Barack Obama says that the U.S. is not doing nearly enough to create jobs through technology.

Scott Rafer: The Facebook Platform is Dead — When speaking at the Facebook developer conference today in Berlin, Scott Rafer declared that Facebook platform dead. He posted statistics including one that I posted that suggests Facebook widgets are dead. Lookery's own statistics …

Researchers log keystrokes from afar with an antenna — Computer keystrokes can be snooped from afar by detecting the slight electromagnetic radiation emitted when a key is pressed, according to new research previewed on Monday. — Other security experts have theorized keyboards were vulnerable …

Call it a ‘sub-subnotebook.’ New ‘PC’ is small as a cell phone! — SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. — IMOVIO launched today a smaller alternative to a subnotebook — much smaller. The new iKIT is about the size of a PDA from ten years ago, but has a QWERTY keyboard and connects to the Internet at 3G speeds via your cell phone or Wi-Fi.

The cost of First Click Free — The web you see when you go through Google's search engine is no longer the web you see when you don't go through Google's search engine. — In a note on my previous post, The Centripetal Web, Seth Finkelstein points to Philipp Lenssen's discussion of a new Google service …

Wikia lays off 30 percent of staff — Bid goodnight to Jimmy Wales's dream of cashing out on Wikipedia, the world's largest collection of infrequently asked questions. The vehicle for his scheme, a derivative for-profit startup called Wikia, is imploding.

Intel shows off working Moorestown MID device — Intel on Monday showed off a prototype handheld based on Moorestown, its upcoming Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform designed to enable a new generation of ultra-thin, touchscreen devices with extensive battery life.

MSI to launch 3.5G Wind netbook next month — Micro-Star International (MSI) is planning to launch the Wind U120 with a built-in 3.5G module in November this year. The netbook will feature Intel's Atom N270 processor, 1GB memory, 120GB hard drive and Windows XP and be priced around NT$18,000 …

Judge Allows Kentucky To Seize Domain Names — Last month, we wrote about a judge allowing Kentucky's governor to seize 141 domain names that were somehow associated with gambling sites under a bizarre interpretation of Kentucky law. Pretty much everyone involved admits …

Worlds First iPhone Hotel — Its in California and I do think that the title is well deserved. Its actual name is the Malibu Beach inn and it operates almost every little thing with Apples help. Its great if you have an iPhone or iPod with you when you check in , if not the hotel obliges by equipping you with a 16 gig iPod touch.

BlackBerry Storm hitting Best Buy November 16th? — To be fair, that's what looks to be the in-stock date, not the street date as we're told. We got our hands on a print out of a Best Buy product sheet which clearly shows the BlackBerry Storm's store in-stock date.

Q4 earnings: A guide to Apple's guidance — Apple guides conservatively - which is to say it low-balls its earnings and revenue numbers for the coming quarter so that it can blow them out of the water three months later. It's a game the company plays every quarter, but the market never seems to learn …

Microsoft gets patent for real-time f-bomb bleeping — Back in 2004 Microsoft applied for a patent for real-time censoring of audio streams, and now the USPTO has granted that patent. — As PC gamers have known for a long time, and Xbox gamers have known for a while …

CBS Tries to Make Online Viewing Social — Mel Brooks said the hardest thing to do was to make a person sitting alone in a room laugh out loud. Laughter is social, and that's important to consider as watching online video on your laptop or handheld device with headphones can be a pretty isolating experience.

Two Ways Yahoo Can Blow The Mass Firings — Now that Yahoo employees have had the pleasure of reading about their impending fate for weeks, management will reportedly finally announce the mass firings this week. The exact number has yet to be released—somewhere between 1500 and 3000 …

Linux Ecosystem worth $25 billion — From the “not bad for Free” files: — The Linux Foundation is set to release a report on Wednesday estimating that the Linux ecosystem is now worth $25 billion. The $25 billion figure is one that I'm surprised at because its lower than other forecasts I've seen over the years.